David Benavidez has become a major player in the light-heavyweight division.
‘The Mexican Monster’ stepped up to 175lbs after a successful period at super-middleweight where he became a two-time WBC champion, but was unable to secure his long-craved showdown with pound-for-pound star Canelo Alvarez.
Since moving to light-heavyweight, Benavidez has claimed victories over Oleksandr Gvozdyk and David Morrell, with the win over Morrell seeing Benavidez become mandatory challenger to the WBC 175lb title.
That belt is currently held by Dmitry Bivol, who became undisputed champion in February by defeating Artur Beterbiev in their rematch, after Beterbiev had won their initial meeting back in October.
A fight between Bivol and Benavidez is now reportedly close to being agreed, and while those two 175lb fighters may be about to meet, there is another world champion that ‘The Mexican Monster’ isn’t keen on fighting.
Speaking to Fighthype, Benavidez revealed that he doesn’t want to take on unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, after there had been rumblings that the Ukrainian may consider dropping down to cruiserweight.
“To be honest with you I have to deal with these monsters in this weight class first.
Usyk? I don’t think I have enough experience to go up against Usyk. I’m just being 100% honest. Like you say never say never, maybe in the future, maybe in 5 or 6 years but by then Usyk will be 40 something or even older. I have tremendous respect for Usyk and he’s the greatest of all time.”
With Benavidez ruling out a move to cruiserweight for now, it appears that Usyk has done the same, admitting recently that he may find it too tough to return to the division where he was once undisputed due to the weight he now carries at heavyweight.
Instead, WBC, WBA and WBO champion Usyk could be set to try and become undisputed again at heavyweight, with a rematch against IBF champion Daniel Dubois likely for this summer.
